In traditional pastoral farming practice, farms are commonly divided by fencing into sectors which in New Zealand are called "paddocks". The livestock are let into a paddock to graze until the pasture in that paddock is exhausted. At that stage, the livestock are let into another of the paddocks to enable the pasture in the first paddock to regrow.
When dairy cows are raised by such traditional practice, much time is occupied in moving the cows between the milking shed and the paddocks. Moreover, there is a capital cost involved in the construction of the raceways (i.e. the walkways which the cows use in this process) and the land which they occupy reduces the land available for grazing. To add to this, raceways often require to be metalled (i.e. dressed with gravel) and the metal increases the risk of bruising the cows' feet,
A method of intensive dairy farming has previously been proposed in which dairy cattle are grazed in a circular block of land which is served by a center pivot irrigator which rotates about a pivot point located at the center of the block. Two movable fences are provided which extend from the center point to the boundary of the block and define a paddock the position of which can be changed by moving the fences around the center point. Over time, the paddock is thus moved around the entire block.
It is also known to graze cattle in a circular block of land which is divided into a number of wedge shaped paddocks by fences which extend radially from the center of the block. The land is also served by a center pivot irrigator which rotates about the center of the block.
While these latter two methods would undoubtedly increase the rate of growth of pasture, they do not appear to address the issues raised above in connection with the location of the milking shed.